With winter finally winding down I wonder where those slow days went... There was like 5, maybe. Often times people ask if we are open during the winter. People are surprised that is is our full time job. It's true I haven't meet too many people who carve for a living; Dennis Rogair, Joe's son Ben, and a hand full of others. We are here rain or shine, heck both Joe and I even made it to work during a snow storm the other morning. We were thinking winter would be a good time to get caught up on things take it easy for a while after the craziness of summer. Ah but how soon we forget that after summer is Christmas order time and then oh! A week of quiet bliss after new years and then here we go again. The late winter/early spring we do a few home shows. It's nice because we get to meet some very nice people and it's something a little different. Joe and Ben worked on building this really great rustic pergola with carvings on it to take to the show. Here is a picture Joe took at the St. Paul Home and Patio Show.
We have it outside our store right now, full of snow of course. On one post there is an eagle perched and under it(you can't really see it in the picture)a nest, then on one of the horizontals you can see a bear poking his head out of a log, and there is also a raccoon looking out of one of the other logs. My personal favorite is the bear walking across the top. We also got our bar done for the show, it was a very popular item getting many compliments. Here are some pictures of it that we took in the shop right after it was built.
As you can see from the pictures it has some amazing features. The flair base logs on the corners and the y logs on the back side supporting the top. The backside has an opening for a refrigerator and and a cabinet with shelves.
It seems that our busy season has already started around here. Joe is carving like crazy on orders, which is fine because it's been to cold for him to carve on the big cedar tree lately. Soon he is going to start working on this cute carving for a customer- two bear cubs playing felled birch tree. Guess who was the lucky one that got to go climbing through 3 feet of snow to get us a tree? Yep that would be me, with the help of my ever handy and easily bribed(with cookies) husband. He really helps me and Joe out a lot. We appreciate all the running around to help with deliveries and home shows that he does for us.
As for the store we are working as always to fill it with unique things. We just got some more super cute
acorn stools! I love how each one is a little different. I brought one home and kids think it's great. A cute functional decoration. Our
bear beds have been very popular lately as well. If you've ever worked retail you'll notice that things sell in waves- one week this is hot then the next it's this.
Joe has been quite liberal with the picture postings on Face book these days. If our page I Saw It In Mn, llc can get to 2000 likes by April first he is giving away a bear and an eagle. As o f the time of this post we are at 1265. That is an average of about 30 a day, I think we will make it. I'm going to paint them tomorrow and Joe is going to post the pictures on our face book page.
